


A Precedent

by Drakey



Series: Truth [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Creepy Force Toddlers, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I don't owe anyone any diacritics 'cause they're hard, Some of those characters only show up for a moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23767795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakey/pseuds/Drakey
Summary: It is Luke and Leia's third birthday, and the Skywalker clan has a party. Includes Ahsoka being melodramatic, Creepy Force Toddlers, and thrilling conversations about the merits of home-schooling.
Relationships: Lux Bonteri/Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Truth [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700803
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90





	A Precedent

Luke and Leia Skywalker were strange children. In and of itself, this was not unusual. It was, in fact, to be expected. After all, the first children of a Jedi-or former Jedi, at any rate-in centuries were bound to be strange, and Anakin was perfectly aware that he was a very unusual ex-Jedi to begin with. And of course, Padme was Force-sensitive, too. Not to the same degree as Anakin, or Obi-Wan, or most other Jedi, but it was there. Anakin knew that his children were extremely Force-sensitive.

They were also blastingly weird. At their third birthday party, the twins sat calmly, side by side on the couch between Ahsoka and Lux. They weren't quite _participating_ in the conversation so much as noting, reflecting, and commenting on it. Everyone was there, of course, spread throughout his and Padme's home. Mace Windu chatted with Senator Organa out at the edge of the balcony, both of them dangling their legs out over the gaping infinity of lower Coruscant. Padme was happily entertaining Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos, who had arrived together, bickering in that distracted way that just seemed to happen if they were in the same space for long enough. Rex was leading a boisterous all-clone armwrestling tournament in the kitchen while Mon Mothma looked in on them with a slightly absent smile and a mild blush. Threepio and Artoo were done preparing for the party and now enjoying it, insofar as Threepio ever enjoyed anything. Next to Anakin, Ki held a glass of wine and watched Leenee, his third wife, easing herself down into a chair.

"You know," Anakin said conversationally, "I had forgotten how creepy Jedi children are, but these two..."

Ki sipped his wine and quirked an eyebrow. "I've seen it before. This is when the Jedi would come to collect them. You know you have to set a precedent, right?"

Anakin glared momentarily at the aged Cerean, then turned his eyes back to where his former padawan sat on the couch. Her left arm was flung over the back of it, her fingers idly toying with Lux's sleeve. "I don't want the Jedi to take them," Anakin said. "But I wish the Jedi could help. The Jedi Order are about the only people who know how to raise Force-sensitive kids. If they'd had me from the beginning-"

"Don't dwell on that, Anakin," Ki interrupted. "And let me give you a piece of advice: no one knows how to raise children of any kind. I've seen the Order's process from an outsider's perspective, and I was never terribly impressed. If everyone is taught and raised the same way, you'll stifle innovation." Anakin could feel a smirk radiating off of the old man as he raised his voice just enough to be heard across the room. "What I'm more interested in is how taken Miss Tano seems to be with the Senator from Onderon."

Ahsoka went ramrod straight, jerked her hand away from Lux's sleeve, and, oozing startled embarrassment in the Force, turned a completely ineffectual icy glare on Ki. Windu, of all people, started laughing.

Lux leaned down to whisper something to Luke while Anakin watched the buildup to Ahsoka knocking Ki down a peg or two. While Anakin was still dithering over whether to be proud of Ahsoka or to pity Ki, the twins ran off to find their other favorite people. 

Luke went to Obi-Wan, tugged on his sleeve to get his attention, and said, in perfect Huttese (which Anakin could not figure out how he knew, he'd only spoken it around him for that one week when they were on Tatooine with Ahsoka and that had been six months before Luke started talking, but once again, Force-sensitive kids were _really weird),_ "I would like to talk about alien megafauna."

Leia, on the other hand, sat down cross-legged next to Bail Organa, began to levitate about a handsbreadth off the ground, and allowed him to keep hold of her hand in case she drifted towards the edge of the balcony.

As soon as the children were with their new companions, Lux turned to Ahsoka and declared, in a voice like an actor projecting to a crowded theater, "oh, he's right, my darling! Come, tell me how your heart yearns for me!"

Ahsoka blinked, turned to give Lux a puzzled look, and then caught on and fell into his outstretched arms. "Oh but Lux, my darling, we cannot! For you are a Senator, and I am a Jedi!"

"Oh no," Anakin muttered.

"Oh, what cruel fate has befallen us!" Lux grasped Ahsoka's shoulders and held her out at arm's length, staring at her with longing that Anakin knew was only about half-fabricated, and which managed, with the little spark of the genuine, to be even more comically overblown. "We cannot be together, and yet my very loins yearn for you!"

"Hey, enough with the loins!" Cody yelled from the kitchen.

Ahsoka whirled in Lux's arms. "I cannot bear to look upon what cannot be!" She soliloquized. "But Lux, my love for you burns like a flame! Let us run away to be married in secret!" She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and fell backwards into Lux's lap.

Padme, the traitor, was giggling at the display, though she was also turning bright red. Anakin knew his own embarrassment must be even more obvious.

"A secret marriage!" Lux exclaimed, like the idea had personally delivered him from death. "Yes, my love, that plan couldn't possibly backfire horribly!"

"Quickly," Ahsoka yelled, flinging an arm up past the back of the couch in a dramatic gesture, "No time to think about our plan or look into other options! Let's go and take the first, most melodramatic solution that's presented itself! Oh, Lux, I love you so!"

"Oh, Ahsoka, I love you with the heat of a supernova!" Lux bent down and they both started making deeply unrealistic, moderately horrifying kissing noises.

"Oh, kiss me secretly!" Ahsoka yelled, even louder. Lux's head came back up.

"Ow, Ahsoka, that was really loud," Lux said. He looked around at his audience, most of whom were giggling helplessly, then shot a disarming smile at Anakin. Anakin did not forgive him. Ahsoka clambered back upright.

"Why do I let you in my house, Snips?" Anakin asked.

"I would imagine she keeps you grounded," Ki said. "Your point is taken, Miss Tano."

"No, that's just a bonus. Skyguy lets me in here because he loves me." Ahsoka stood up, adjusting her clothes as though she hadn't just flopped all over the couch. "Padme would kill him if he didn't let me in, too," she added.

"It's true," Padme said. Ahsoka started towards the kitchen, and was just crossing the threshold when Padme added "I would be very upset with him if he closed you out and I missed you confessing that you got too sarcastic and actually married poor Lux." Lux turned bright red almost instantly. Something interesting happened to the coloration on Ahsoka's lekku, too. Padme smiled. "I mean, you're going to need so much reassurance when that happens."

Ahsoka hurried into the kitchen past the roaring laughter of half a dozen clones. "She's got your number, Commander," Rex called out.

"No she doesn't!" Ahsoka called back. A door closed. By the sound of it, the 'fresher door was starting to stick again. Anakin made a note to fix it, then went over to his wife. Padme leaned back against him when he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Padme," Anakin said, "have I told you how much I love you recently?"

+-+

"He looks happy," Quinlan said. "I never thought your Padawan would look happy after the war started."

"First," Obi-Wan replied with as much seriousness as he could muster, "He hasn't been my Padawan for five years. Second, did you think he would be unhappy because of the war, or because of me?"

Quinlan smiled. It was a rare enough sight, and Obi-Wan was gratified to see it. When Quinlan smiled, he had a way of looking like he was not only _presently_ untroubled, but like nothing troubling could possibly happen in the _future,_ either. "Well, because of you, obviously. I mean, you were always so strict with him, and you being the great Destroyer of Sith he had a lot to live up to, and you're such a dour, joyless old fuddy-duddy."

"You know he only invites you to these things because of me, right?" Obi-Wan said.

Quinlan wound up for a reply, but Obi-Wan smirked at him as Anakin approached and Quinlan's bickering answer was permanently tabled.

"Obi-Wan!" Anakin hugged him tightly. Obi-Wan had taken a long time to get used to the open displays of affection. When Anakin was ten, he'd made a habit of hugging Obi-Wan whenever he could, which Obi-Wan had not known how to handle, but which other Jedi had insisted should be trained out of the boy. "I'm glad you and Quinlan could make it," Anakin continued, leading Obi-Wan to the couches. Most of the guests had gone. Ki-Adi-Mundi and his wife had left, talking animatedly with Mace about some point of politics, nearly three hours ago, and that had started the great exodus, so that now the only remaining guests were Rex, Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Obi-Wan. Padme was singing to the children in the other room while Rex helped her tuck them in. 

"I was glad to be here," Obi-Wan said. "Contrary to the opinions of certain very incorrect people, I am not joyless, after all."

"You are starting to get old, though," Anakin said, settling into one of the seats. Before Obi-Wan could say anything to that, he went on, "we need to talk about the twins. I hear Kento and Mallie's boy is growing up just as Force-sensitive as they are, and Kilaka's got a whole brood starting to float things with their minds out on Luhur-Vahr. Ki may be annoying, but he's right about the whole... younglings issue."

"You're not going to give them to the Order," Obi-Wan predicted. 

"We're going to get very few takers on that offer," Quinlan predicted, laying a sympathetic hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. "When the Jedi were the only people in the galaxy who could be trusted to teach a child how to use the Force without hurting anyone, it made sense to send Force-sensitives off to the temple. Now, there are hundreds of ex-Jedi running around, and they're all more than capable of teaching a youngling."

"You have an idea," Obi-Wan stated flatly.

Anakin nodded. "Change the system. And it isn't my idea. It's Padme's."

"How do you plan to change the system?" Obi-Wan asked.

Padme and Rex emerged from the kids' bedroom. "Employ the Jedi as teachers," Padme said. "There's no war. Not any longer. Continue scouting Force-sensitive children, but there's no reason to take them to the temple. Work with the former Jedi. Some of them won't want to help with this, but teaching might help some of them. Between the ex-Jedi and the current Jedi, you can help rebuild trust by showing you're evolving and reforming."

Obi-Wan and Quinlan exchanged glances. "We'll have to talk to the rest of the Council about it," Quinlan said cautiously, "but it sounds like a good idea to me."

Obi-Wan nodded. "I think so, too."

They said their niceties and they departed happily an hour or so later, piling into the Republic-red airspeeder together. "I wanted that," Quinlan said after a while, staring out at traffic. "What they have. A little house, maybe a kid, friends over all the time, not constantly fighting off the forces of darkness."

Obi-Wan sighed. "I did, too," he admitted.

"Maybe it's not too late," Quinlan said.

Obi-Wan smiled at that. "I'm not raising a child from infancy."

"I don't hear a no," Quinlan prodded.

"Quinlan," Obi-Wan said warningly. Quinlan lapsed into silence until the Jedi Temple rose up in front of them. "You know we're both too important to the Order to leave."

"We don't have to be," Quinlan pointed out very reasonably. "I almost left when this all started."

"You'd nearly been expelled, and now you're..."

"You were going to say 'better,' weren't you?" Quinlan teased. "Obi-Wan, I don't think I'll be 'better' until I actually do leave. But you're right. I'll serve until I'm not needed anymore."

Obi-Wan landed the speeder. "And after you've served long enough?"

Quinlan chucked him gently on the arm. "I'll convince you to take a break and help me get moved. I hear Hoth is lovely, maybe I'll live there."

**Author's Note:**

> Quinlan and Obi-Wan are definitely a little married. I'm not sure where I'm going with that, but it's cute.


End file.
